David Whitten faces one count each of negligent homicide and endangering the welfare of an incompetent person in connection to the death of his daughter, 29-year-old Caterina Whitten. Her body was found at a home in Lowell, more than 200 miles northwest of Little Rock.
“The initial reaction is just like anybody else,” Benton County Chief Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Joshua Robinson said, according to The Mirror. “It’s one of sadness and just kind of — shock. You hate to see people living in poor conditions. You hate to see somebody that loses their life, especially at a pretty young age.”
The Arkansas horror house
A press release revealed that law enforcement officials and firefighters found the body of Caterina while responding to a medical call. As police conducted a death investigation at the home, they came across as many as five other disabled adults, all of them adopted by David. He was their primary caregiver, according to an affidavit of probable cause.
The document stated that one of these disabled individuals was found walking around the residence in a poop-filled diaper, with seven more soiled pampers strewn on the floor along with trash and dog feces. One part of the horror house was flooded with only one working toilet and a dirty sink in the kitchen, filled with several mold-covered dishes, and cops even noted an apparent cockroach infestation.
Cops found Caterina’s corpse in a bedroom. She was dressed in a blue shirt and a soiled adult diaper, and was on the bed with her legs oddly pointed toward the wall. This suggested it was staged.
Another terrifying discovery prompted authorities to determine that a rape kit was in order. In another bedroom, there was only a bed, a dress, and a strange blood stain on the wall, according to the affidavit. The bed, box springs and the surrounding walls were also stained by brown fluids.
According to an autopsy, Caterina had sustained multiple cockroach bites on her head. Medical examiners found that she was malnourished, and had signs of abrasion to the forehead.
David claimed that his daughter was healthy for a long time without the help of medication. He said she then suddenly “sunk to the floor and wouldn’t move,” on Christmas Day. He added that in the past, Caterina often went “through this phase” where she would refuse to eat and would end up losing a significant amount of weight.
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